Best for cooking Indian curries?

A few weeks on Chowhound, and I'm already cowering in fear of my non-stick cookware.

The skillet and wok situation has been fixed. Just opened the box containing my de Buyer pans from Cost Plus - thanks for that tip.

What's the best alternative to non-stick for preparing Indian curries, or other saucy dishes that require a long, slow, simmer? If I use a non-non-stick saucepan, my concern is that food will stick to the bottom and burn. Am I wrong?

First, let me say Telfon as itself is very inert and very safe. The question is always about what happened after Teflon get heated up to a high and turn into something else. That should only be a concern for high temperature cooking at all. So I don't think Teflon is a problem for long slow simmer cooking. However, if you have made up your mind, then there are alternatives.

I cook some Indian dishes, but you are probably know a lot more than I do.

Based on my experience, many Indian dishes can be acidic, so maybe cast iron is not the best even through I really like cast iron. There is nothing truely bad about it except you may taste some iron in your foods. Stainless steel cookware is good because it is very nonreactive. Hwoever, foods stick to stainless steel more easily, but it may not be a problem for slow cooking and saucy dishes because there will be a lot of liquid around. Almost like constant deglazing. I think both cast iron and stainless steel are excellent choice. I may go for stainless just because it will give you less metal taste and it is easier to take care of.

Now that you mentioned. Yes. You are absolutely correct. In my case, it was also very difficult to get the turmeric residue off. :) Faint yellow in my next meal. One more reason for nonstick and stainless. Thanks for reminding us.

I use my LC DO 3.5 qt for the indian recipes which is saucy and require long slow simmer. it is not nonstick though. like spinach curry with indian cottage cheese, potato curries, Keema, califlower sabji etc, etc. Also, I use my 3qt AC saucier for those too. I really love the ability of the LC to simmer without a burn for those recipes. I cannot use the bigger LC like 6.75 Wide oval because 3.5 qt can easily produce for 6-8 people of those curries. 6.75 is too just big for this purpose. So for those are the incidents, I appreciate to have a smaller LC a lot and the reason why I have so many LC DOs! I think I can use my LC 3.5 qt buffet casserole, too, if total cooking time is not that long. For Cumin and turmeric stains, no problem with those pans, either LC or AC. very easy to clean. for the heavy stain, just fill the water in the pots for over night and wash normally. For the nonstick recipes, I use my LC skillet with the black enamel, which is now well seasoned. It is not completely non-stick but most of the use, I feel it is now good enough.

Ok, hobbybaker has not answered in 4 hours, so I am going to answer. LC = Le Creuset, avery famous French brand for making enameled cast iron cookware. It is not the only thing they make, but it is probably the most important part. AC = All-Clad, a very famous American company for making cladded cookware, especially the "Stainless steel- Aluminum- Stainless steel" configuration.

If you follow the Julie Sahni (and other writers') technique of brown-frying onions in vegetable oil, add the ground or whole spices after the onions are carmelized, then deglaze with water (scraping), there is no need for non-stick. Just make sure the onion-spice slurry cooks long at a low temperature...I've used Le Creuset with excellent results for more than 30 years.